AP photoMichael Pellagatti, of Jersey City holds the plastic handcuffs police used to arrest him for disorderly conduct while marching on the Brooklyn bridge along with the resultant court summons Sunday in New York. More than 700 protestors from the Occupy Wall Street protests camping in nearby Zucotti park were arrested when they marched on the Brooklyn bound lanes while protesting against corporate greed.

Depending on which demonstrator you ask, the "Occupy Wall Street" protests could be a cry against the candidate with the deepest pockets winning any given election; or it could be a symbolic swing at global climate change; or just plain old corporate greed, to name a few.

What the protesters lack in clear objectives, they more than make up for in pure enthusiasm. And for every protester that gets arrested it seems that five more join the chorus against "the man."

What started out with fewer than a dozen college kids in a park is quickly becoming a nationwide movement, with demonstrations popping up in other major cities.

City officials "thought we were going to leave and we haven't left," 19-year-old protester Kira Moyer-Sims told the Associated Press. "We're going to stay as long as we can."

The growing movement "signals a shift in consciousness," said Jared Schy, a young man sitting squeezed between three others who participated in Saturday's march from Manhattan's Financial District to the bridge.

The protest has drawn activists of diverse ages and occupations, including Jackie Fellner, a marketing manager from Westchester County.

"We're not here to take down Wall Street. It's not poor against rich. It's about big money dictating which politicians get elected and what programs get funded," she said.

On Sunday, a group of New York public school teachers sat in the plaza, including Denise Martinez of Brooklyn. Most students at her school live at or below the poverty level, and her classes are jammed with up to about 50 students.

"These are America's future workers, and what's trickling down to them are the problems — the unemployment, the crime," she said. She blamed Wall Street for causing the country's financial problems and said it needed to do more to solve them.

On the past two Saturdays, they marched to other parts of the city, which led to tense standoffs with police. On Sept. 24, about 100 people were arrested and the group put out video which showed some women being hit with pepper spray by a police official. On Oct. 1, more than 700 people were arrested as the group attempted to cross the Brooklyn Bridge.

Gatherings elsewhere included one in Providence, R.I., that attracted about 60 people to a public park. The participants called it a "planning meeting" and initially debated whether to allow reporters to cover it.

In Boston, protesters set up an encampment across the street from the Federal Reserve Building.